To launch a season whose over-arching theme is FIRE, the Chamber Chorus presents the first St. Louis performance of Sergey Taneyev’s “Prometheus,” the Greek titan who presented fire to mankind. While Taneyev completed his work more than a century ago, the Latvian maestro, Eriks Esenvalds has only just put the finishing touches to his latest commission for our singers. His settings of verse by the St. Louisan, Sara Teasdale, reflect his abiding fascination for her poetry, and they join an already sizeable collection of such choral settings. It will be a particular thrill for the singers to perform his music in the presence of the composer, as Esenvalds will be flying here from his home in Riga for the première. This new music will contrast with a series of Renaissance madrigals that use the metaphor of fire to convey the consuming passions of human relationships. In addition, the rarity of two ‘canzone’ by the Baroque master, Alessandro Scarlatti, is complemented by German ‘lieder’ from an Anglo-Czech prodigy of the 19th century, Agnes Tyrrell, whose compositions have only lately come to light. Thus, the Chamber Chorus stays true to its mission to promote the work of women composers and to champion both new and neglected music from composers around the globe.
The understated elegance of the modern sanctuary of Second Baptist Church in Richmond Heights, with its true acoustic and unimpeded sight lines, provides the ideal venue to inaugurate the 71st season of the Chamber Chorus, which makes it one of the nation’s longest-lived independent choirs.